A/N: Yeah! I'm back in the groove. Here's Chapter 7, concluding the battle!

Chapter 7: The Demon of Inajuku Castle

As the blood-red demon came towards Haruki, I stepped in between them, my arms spread out. "Begone, foul demon! Leave this residence!" I proclaimed, but that was just for show. To Haruki, I whispered over my shoulder, "Run somewhere and hide. I'll take care of this thing." Ha-chan gave me concerned eyes, but nodded. The demon growled and took another step forward. Let's just hope this guy's growl is bigger than his bite.

I whipped my flute out from the inside of my kimono. "Sonet of the Underworld!" I declared and put the instrument to my lips and began to play the tune I knew so well. It was a quick paced sonet. The tempo went up and down ad made your heart flutter with anticipation. Soon, ghostly figures opped out of the ground and began to swarm around my enemy, leeching onto him with their cold, lifeless hands. As their number grew, they slowly began to pull the demon down with them. However, before I could bring out enough damned souls, the demon flung the ghosts off of him and charged towards me, with poor Haruki cowering behind my back.

My fingers moved like never before and I blew all of my breath into the flute, and just barely made the sheild pop up in time. The demon was reflected off of the glowing orb around us and he crashed into the wall opposite of where I made my stand. The beautifully adorned wall caved in under the demon's weight. It seems he's solid enough to break things. He's gathered so much energy from the servants and the princess that he's made himself a body. This is bad. I can't send his soul to the other side if he has a body.

The demon rose back up, and held its sword out. It let out a monstrous cry and a blast of energy struck me. I was blasted through the roof and out of the castle. As the dust was blown off of me, I took notice of the fast approaching ground. Oh, sh-

Quickly, I held Tsuki out before me, "Tsuki, Transform!" It glowed brightly, but by that time, it was too late.

Haruki's POV

I stared at the gaping hole in the roof that still had some debri falling down. Karmina had just flown out of the roof. She was blasted! She wouldn't survive a fall like that, and she didn't have enough time to play one of her magical songs to save herself! "Kar-"

My cry of despair was cut off as the demon charge towards me, its mouth open to suck the very life out of me. I didn't know what to do, I cowered down, wrapped myself into a protective ball and cried for help. But there was a noise louder than mine. There was a huge explosion and I thought the demon had blasted me also, but when I looked up, the demon was no where to be found, and all the walls had been completely obliterated. It was surprising that the castle was still in one piece. I looked to my right, and found someone I had never seen before, but she looked a lot like Karmina.

She had these black markings all over her body, and her eyes had become inverted. Her hair was long and whipping in the wind, and two silvery, webbed wings protruded from her back. She had two fangs and had this white glow about her. Plus, she was holding what looked like Karmina's flute, but longer and with a blade at the end. I gasped. This was Karmina.

"Karmina?" I asked in a trembly voice.

Her cold white irises bore straight through me. They were so icy, they made me shiver uncontrollably. It didn't feel like she was looking at me as a human, but more like she was looking at my soul...as an object...as something trivial to her. As food, I thought, but quickly waved it out of my mind. Karmina didn't eat souls, she just controlled them. She told me herself he very thought of it was grotesque.

The white demonic Karmina looked back to where there was a hole through a whole line of walls. She must've blasted the demon all the way to the otherside of the castle, but from the roars, he's was coming back. Sure enough, the demon came charging through the wall with its sword raised to kill. But suddenly, its head fell off his shoulders and his body crashed to the floor. I found Karmina standing at the opposite end of the room, her scythe/flute held lightly in her hands and covered with blood. The demon's blood. She had decapitated him so fast, no one could even see it.

But the battle was not over yet. The soul of the demon was still here, and strong. It couldn't attack us physically, but it could harm us spiritually. It set its bloody eyes on me and made to devour my soul. But Karmina was there in a flash, and played a tune so...forboding that I felt the very life being sucked out of me. The demon screamed in terror as it slowly shriveled up and eventually disappeared. The demon had finally been defeated. The entire top half of the castle demolished. It was silent for the longest minute. The steward, the king and the half-dead princess all looked at Karmina with awe and horror. Just like I was.

This new Karmina looked at me with her freezing eyes and slowly, ever so slowly, faced me and knelt before me, so that we were eye level, which only made the chill worse. Her eyes turned hungry, and she put her hand on my cheek. I could feel it suck the warmth from my body, as Karmina's face came closer to mine. My heart rate shot through the roof. I-I-Is she gon-n-n-na k-k-k-kiss m-m-me?! Just before her lips met mine, she collapsed in front of me, and had transformed back to the regular albino that I had come to love. I stared off into the empty space that was once her face, my heart slowly calming down. I couldn't deny this small feeling of disappointment deep in my heart.

Karmina's POV

I woke up on the comfiest bed that I had ever slept on. The room around me was beautiful, with the paper walls painted with majestic scenes of nature litered with tigers. I smiled dreamily. Tigers were such pretty kitties. I giggled in a half-counscious state. "Heehee, pretty kitty," I giggled stupidly. "That rhymes." I finally woke up, shooting out of my bed and looking around. Haruki's was staring at me like I was retarded along with a servant that waited at the door. Wait, a servant...

"Oh, yeah," I said, looking around. "I remember now, I'm at the castle. I was supposed to fight that demon when it-" I remembered the previous eventsthat had led to me being blasted out of the roof top. "Ah, hell! I mean, Heaven, hopefully. I must be dead!" I turned to look at Ha-chan ,and hugged him with tears in my eyes. "Oh, no! Ha-chan! You died too? I'm sorry I couldn't protect you!!!"

"Ah! Karmina, you're not-" He stuttered but a booming voice interrupted him.

"Why are you crying! This is a time to rejoice, well, except for the castle...My daughter has been saved, and we are no longer plagued with this demon!"

I looked up to see the king, and then realized that I wasn't dead. I immeadiatlely went back to my former self. "So, Your Majesty, what about my reward?"

The king looked etchy. His eyes flung to the side and he twittled his fingers. "Well, you see, with the amount of damage you caused to my castle, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to take the rewards amount of money to fix it.

"WHAT?!" I couldn't help but scream. All that work! and for nothing?! I gripped my flute tightly. "I'm feeling very..angry, right now. Very..." I looked up with a sinister face, "merciless!!"

The king cowered back and ordered a servant to fetch him as much money as he could carry. He soon came back with a huge pouch full of gold. I smiled triumphantly, and held the money greedily.

We left the castle that day and continued to walk on. "Karmina," Ha-chan scolded me. "That wasn't very nice to take their money."

"Hey, I was promised a reward," I argued. "And besides, it was worth it. I saw you blushing when the princesses saw us off."

Haruki immeadiately turned beet red. "I-I did not!"

"Yes you did!" I teased and ran ahead as he began to chase me. I laughed. That was something I hadn't done in a long time.